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Chapter 5Summary, Conclusion, RecommendationThis chapter summarizes the findings, generated conclusions, and recommendations based on the analysis of the results of the study on the Loyalty Cards: Effects on Consumer Buying Behavior done by the researchers. The participants of the study were composed of the two hundred fifty five (225) loyalty card holders ranging from 16-75 years of age. This study was conducted during the first semester of the school year 2015-2016.The descriptive method was applied by the researchers and developed modified type of survey questionnaires as a primary instrument in the data gathering process. Data gathered from participants were also used as means to compare and contrast the results. The summary and conclusion is arranged as per objectives of the study. SummaryOn the basis of the data gathered in relation to the statement of the problem, the following are the significant findings:The first objective of the research is to identify the socio-demographic profile of the participants of this study. The following information were gathered and interpreted; the participants age, sex, civil status, monthly income, and occupation. Based on the results, majority of the participants are from ages 16-25. Females make up the majority if the participants. For the civil status, the majority came from married couples. Majority have P15,001-P30,000 as their monthly income/allowance. Skilled workers are the most commonly found as frequent users of loyalty card/s.The second objective was to identify what type of loyalty card/s does participants own. Based on the results, SM Advantage Card was generally owned by participants with 68.24% of the total population, Robinsons Rewards Card with 33.73%, Gaisano Card with 25.49%, Lopues Discount Card with19.22%, and others with 1.96%. The reasons why such large percentage owns the SM Advantage Card are the appealing and enticing innovation and improvement of the retail stores CRM programs. Also, SM Store does not position its firm limited only to the class A but rather open to all classes which even became more alluring to the people.The third objective was to determine the frequency of usage of participants loyalty card/s. According to the results, most respondents use their loyalty card/s once a month whenever they purchase on a retail store for it garnered the highest frequency of 27 or 50% of the total surveyed population. The reasons why such a large percentage uses their loyalty card once a month is that people do not frequently spend their money on purchasing something not needed. Their purchases are more of their basic necessities and some income earners usually get their salaries once a month so purchasing behavior also differs. The fourth objective was to determine the most preferred loyalty cards by the card holders. Based on the gathered results, the most preferred loyalty card by the participants with 131 or 51.37% of the total population is the SM Advantage Card which was also the top one loyalty card owned by participants according to the data gathered in the objective 2. It simply implies that SMAC is the most preferred loyalty card of customers since the store is known as the first retail store to implement CRM program which is the loyalty card that eventually gained interest and attract a lot of customers.

The fifth objective was to identify the reasons of participants of the said preference in objective 4. Based on the results, the top three reasons that was mostly answered by the participants are having more discounts with 12.36%, accessibility of place with 11.02%, and completeness of product offerings with 10.53%. Other reasons are higher points with 9.79%, ambiance of place with 9.67%, more promos with 8.57%, low prices with 8.08%, more freebies with 6.61%, fast services with 6.36%, people are accommodating with 5.02%, spatial convenience with 4.90%, responsive to complaints with 3.55%, and people are courteous with 3.43%.ConclusionBased on the findings, the researchers conclude that all of the participants are the ideal subjects of this study as their socio-demographic profiling has shown. Also, this kind of profiling is necessary to identify the effects of loyalty cards to the consumer buying behavior. It was found that majority of the loyalty card holders are mostly young professionals who are frequent shoppers and more likely to go to retail stores especially malls. Results show that married couples are the most dominant in number who owns a loyalty card, and skilled workers are found out to be the largest in percentage of the total population owning a loyalty card. The results of the study show that the SM Advantage Card is commonly used by participants. For the frequency of shopping, it was also identified that most of the participants only shop once a month since not all are financially capable of purchasing goods so as time constraints (e.g. hectic schedules, other priorities). The participants affirm to the researchers that they do increase their shopping spending having availed of loyalty cards. Also, the researchers discovered that majority of the respondents chose the SMAC as their most preferred loyalty card. Lastly, the participants reasons for preference are having more discounts, accessibility of place, and completeness of product offerings as the top three answers. This is why; overall, the SMAC was mostly availed and preferred by participants since SM Store has already established a brand image known by people and they have integrated a very effective customer relationship management which is very enticing to people since SM Store is known as the first retail store to implement such program. The innovativeness of the store also made their image even stronger by gaining trust of people and as their saying goes, we got it all for you proven that they do are reliable. RecommendationThe findings of the study as well as the suggestions of the participants helped the researchers prepare the following recommendations:PriceBased on the results of this study, it was found out that most of the suggestions made by the participants about the loyalty card are particularly the price. This is why the researchers recommend the following:1. First and foremost, the retail store should consider not only their loyalty card holders but also the non-members as well. Since not all customers of a particular retail store are interested to avail a loyalty card, the application fee or price also matter to them and some might consider this as a reason for not availing at all. The retail store should make changes or adjustments in terms of pricing the loyalty card and make it a bit less expensive but fair enough to every customer of the retail store. This in turn, it can further entice customers to keep on coming to the retail store to shop more since they already own a loyalty card at a justified pricing. The store could also make customers an automatic member if he/she purchases P5,000 worth of products from the store. This is also a key in acquiring new members since not all customers know about the customer relationship management programs such as loyalty cards.2. The expiration of the loyalty card should also be extended to two to five years in order to let the customers fully maximize their use of the loyalty card. Also, it would also be beneficial to them and even acquire more loyalty card holders for the retail store if there would be no renewal fee for the loyalty card because this is one of the reasons why some members fail to remain active due to the additional fee of renewal every two years. This would help gain the existing members loyalty and most of all more loyalty card members on the part of the retail store since the main factor why customers loyalty are not increasing is the price itself.PromotionCustomer acquisition and retention are crucial for businesses to grow. As stated in a study in chapter 2, loyalty has become important over the past few years, because of increased competition within respective industries. Companies infer loyalty for having a similar meaning and have developed strategic advertising and marketing efforts for creating a connection between the customers and company. However, the challenge in acquiring new customers for the retail store as well as loyal ones is a reflection of the competitive nature of the retail environment which is why the researchers recommend the following:1. Since most of the loyalty card holders gathered in this study are young professionals aged 16-25 years old, it is very useful for the retail store to make use of different promotional tools in order to attract this segment of card holders since their generation are more prone to buying stuffs without considering the money to be spent.2. More customers are likely to purchase more if theres a bigger benefit for them. The researchers recommend to the retail stores having loyalty cards to increase the equivalent points per purchase of the customers. Some customers find the points too small based on the amount they purchased that makes them lose their vitality in buying more stuffs.3. Customers also feel good receiving good rewards from the store they go to. The retail store could also make use of giving more rewards to customers especially for the loyalty card holders to further increase their shopping spending. The rewards that the retail store should provide to the customers must also be satisfying and good enough to make the shopping experience of the customer more remarkable.ProductAs shown in the study in chapter 2, loyalty programs are offered to the customers to build their emotional attachment for a certain brand and are not merely set to encourage them to repurchase. Further, a lot of suggestions were also gathered by the participants regarding the product features of the loyalty card thus the researchers recommend the following:1. The loyalty card should put information on its back part about how to check the balance points the card holder has. It might be via SMS or email. In this way, people will keep track on his/her points without falling in line on the counter to ask how much points he/she earned. Also, the firm should notify the card holder through SMS or email if he/she has already reached his/her accumulated points that can be used to redeem his/her prize/s. Thus, card holders will become more aware of their points. This is beneficial especially to females since they are the most frequent shoppers of the retail store which makes them to purchase even more, earn higher points, and redeem more prizes.2. The researchers also recommend that the coverage of the card should be widened for card holders to purchase more products from different outlets. It is a win-win situation because the store generated more profit and card holders earned more points. PlaceThe degree to which a consumer shops at a particular store is relative to competitive outlets and the store patronage involves the consumer's choice for a particular retail store as shown in the study in chapter 2. A lot of research study point out that convenience is among the top factors that influence customers to buy but there are still a lot of disadvantages which influences the customers not to buy in a particular retail store. Because of this, the researchers recommend the following:1. Card holders should have an express lane counter exclusively for them for fast services. In this way, the transaction is more organized and systematic since they do not need to wait long falling in line on the counter. Also, the store should have additional outlets to cater questions since their customer service is not that exposed. In order for card holders to easily ask questions about the card, the store is preferably in need of additional outlets. Other RecommendationsFor the Retail IndustryGiven the fact that in todays time, the growth of the retail industry has caught the attention of many consumers, the challenge right now is how a retail store could position itself as the number one and most patronized store as much as possible in the entire retail industry. The researchers recommend that the retail store should step out of the box and think of new customer relationship management programs distinctive enough aside from the loyalty cards in order to create a new image to the people establish a stronger relationship with the customers later on. The retail store could also think of new ways on how to identify if a customer is satisfied or dissatisfied with their services not just by merely giving out evaluation forms like what some other store does. They could make programs which are not too time consuming for the customers to evaluate like checking a piece of paper which is right now not so nice for the customers because it ruins their mood. The retail store can make use of their other utilities depending on their creativity.For the CustomersThe researchers recommend that the customers should really be vocal when it comes to conflicts and improvements to the loyalty card that they think that would really benefit them. Any suggestions that the customers are able to come up with can really help in improving the customer relationship management program of the retail store. With the customer being able to actively participate in this, their wants and needs will be catered by the retail store thus they would receive a lot of benefits in the long run.For the Future ResearchersDue to the constraints and limitations of the current study, the researchers recommend to widen the scope of the study. They should look upon the application of results of this study to the other generational segmentations so as to have a more comprehensive study. Contrast and comparison will play a role in fully understanding the effects of loyalty cards to the customers buying behavior of each segmentation. The future researchers should schedule more a substantial time span since this study was only done within 4 months. It would also be significant to make a study about the other factors that might affect the customers loyalty towards a retail store so it would help in developing strategies to identify the causes why some retail stores fail to acquire loyal customers. The future researchers might also find substantial results when fully allocating the participants into equal numbers according to their sexes because this study was only able to gather data coming from a majority of female making it biased. The researchers can also make further study about the difference between the single people to the married couples in terms of their purchasing power and measure their loyalty level to the retail store. All in all, a lot of study can be made regarding the loyalty cards since this study acts as an introductory study for this field.

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